Functional Assessment of the Causes of Problem Behavior

1. Functional Assessment of the Causes of Problem Behavior Chapter 22

2. What is Functional Analysis? • Examination of the relationship between behavior and its antecedents and consequences • Antecedents • eliciting stimuli • Consequences • Positive or negative reinforcement

3. Types of Assessment • Questionnaire • Completed by those familiar with client • Reliability issues • Observation • Observe what is going on • Form hypotheses about antecedents and consequences

4. Types of Assessment • Functional Analysis • Systematic manipulation of environmental events to experimentally test their role in behavior maintenance • Limitations • Infrequent behaviors • Not applicable in dangerous behaviors • Expensive and time consuming

5. Causes of Problem Behavior • Attention From Others – Social Positive Reinforcement • Attention follows behavior • Individual approaches attention giver prior to behavior • Smiling prior to behavior • Treatment • Give attention at other times • Reduce attention to behavior

6. Causes of Problem Behavior • Self Stimulation – Internal Sensory Positive Reinforcement • Continue doing the behavior because it offers a desired level of stimulation • Behavior continues at steady rate • Treatment: • Increase sensory stimulation • Reduce stimulation level of behavior

7. Causes of Problem Behavior • Environmental Consequences – External Sensory Positive Reinforcement • Behavior maintained by reinforcing sights and sounds from the nonsocial external environment • Behavior continues undiminished even though it appears to have no social consequences over numerous occasions • Treatment: • Sensory reinforcement of a desirable alternate behavior

8. Causes of Problem Behavior • Escape From Demands – Social Negative Reinforcement • Escape from aversive stimuli • Problem behavior as a way to escape various undesirable demands • Behavior only happens when certain types of requests are made of the person • Treatment • Persist with requests (demands) until compliance • Teach other responses • Program where level of difficulty of requested behavior starts low and is gradually increased

9. Causes of Problem Behavior • Elicited – Respondent • Some behavior is elicited rather than controlled by consequences • Behavior consistently occurs in a certain situation or in the presence of certain stimuli • Behavior seems involuntary • Treatment • Establishing one or more responses that compete with problem behavior (counterconditioning)

10. Causes of Problem Behavior • Medical • Problem emerges suddenly and does not seem to be related to any changes in the individual’s environment • Behavioral diagnostics • Therapist diagnoses the problem after examining antecedents, consequences, and medical and nutritional variables as potential causes of problem behaviors • Develop treatment plan based on diagnosis • Physician should be consulted prior to treatment

11. Guidelines for Conducting Functional Assessment • Define the problem behavior • Identify antecedents • Identify consequences • Consider health/medical/personal variables • Form hypothesis based on information collected • Collect data to determine if hypothesis is correct • If possible, do a functional analysis by directly testing the hypothesis • Design treatment program • If treatment is successful, accept the causal analysis as confirmed. • If treatment is not successful, redo the functional analysis